Staples Switches Copy Centers to Recycled Paper

"By making FSC paper the standard offering in our Copy & Print Centers, we provide customers with the most environmentally preferable option available anywhere."
-Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples

March 11, 2008 —

Staples has announced that all 1,400 of its copy and print centers are now using entirely post-consumer waste recycled paper. The office supply chain currently offers both 100 and 50 percent recycled paper in its copy centers, all of which carries Forest Stewardship Council certification. The company says its goal is to have the certification on the majority of paper products it sells by 2010.

Last month, Staples severed its business relationship with the Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd., over the company's refusal to adopt sustainability measures. Asia Pulp & Paper operates one of Asia's largest paper mills on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and many worry that the company's presence there has contributed to worsening environmental conditions on the island, which is home to a natural rain forest.